The Spring Carping Continues!

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After such an epic experience on Lake Ontario recently and landing a new personal best 32-pound common carp from shore, of course I had to go back for more! Similar to the conditions on the previous outing, it was again an overcast day windy/rainy day. The south wind was fiercely blowing warm water into this little bay which is precisely why the carp stack up in this type of area. Since the last trip produced 18 fish in just an afternoon, I was hopeful the same conditions would get the carp fired up and feeding again!

I was joined by Eric on this excursion. We arrived late morning to our spot. We transported all our gear to the bank and began setting up. The wind was already blowing pretty good and it began to sprinkle rain off and on. After getting set-up and our lines in the water, I began putting on my rain suit. I literally had one pant leg on before my line went screaming with a fish on! So here I was, battling a fish with my pants half on! It was a bit challenging hopping around on the shoreline steering this fish in. Haha! That was definitely a first.

I fished for a few hours with Eric and then I left as I had a hair appointment. What, you don’t get your hair done and wrestle fish in the same day? Haha. Normally I don’t either but it had been well over a year since I did anything with my hair. I was due to trim a few inches off and freshen up. I hooked into another fish right before heading off the water and while I was releasing the fish, I stepped in over my boot and got a soaker. Oops!

The moment before I got a soaker…!

This meant showing up at the salon probably smelling a bit like carp slime and with one wet pant leg. Thankfully my friend and hairstylist Brandy-Lee Brooks loves fishing too and got a laugh out of it! She is wonderful and is one reason I waited so long as I prefer her doing anything with my hair.

A common carp with a unique scale pattern.

This fish above was the most memorable fish I landed on this day. It had quite a blimp of a belly to say the least and had a unique scale pattern.

A closer look at the scales. So beautiful!

I love seeing carp with different scale pattern variations and I’m always hopeful to hook into my first mirror carp. If you haven’t seen one before, mirrors have irregular scales ranging from many scales nearly covering their body to very few scales and the remainder of their body being smooth and leathery. There are also leather carp, which have no scales at all. I’ve only ever seen one mirror in person a few years back when helping a friend land one on the Bay of Quinte.

Eric continued to fish while I was gone and was texting me updates. He landed one smaller fish in the 15-pound range and had two come unbuttoned. I was anxious to get back out there! After Brandy finished up (and did an amazing job, thank you!), I headed back to the water to fish for a few more hours before dark. This is what my new hair do looks like if you were wondering 🙂

Thank you, Brandy!

In total between Eric and I, we landed 7 carp using pop-ups on 360 rigs and method mix (oats and pellets). It wasn’t as action-packed as our previous outing but fun and memorable none the less! We always have a blast especially reeling in these beasts!

Eric with a nice common carp!

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